3 – BootCamp: Configuring Windows

Welcome to your Windows Desktop, it probably looks pretty terrible right now because we are currently missing a large amount of drivers. Don’t worry though you have them on your external USB drive or your OSX installation DVD.

Click on the Windows button (bottom left) and then on Computer, once a new window opens click on the Windows DVD and then click Eject.

Insert your OSX install DVD or your external USB drive with the Windows support software on it, it should appear in the Computer window you currently have opened.

Open the drive or DVD and double click on the setup application, if a User Account Control window pops up click on Yes.

The Bootcamp installer will now open, click on Next then agree to the license terms and click on Next again. On the next screen the correct options will already be selected, click on Next to begin installing the Bootcamp software and Windows drivers. This phase may take a few minutes to complete, don’t worry if it seems to have got stuck at any point.

Once it has completed installing click on the Finish button, you will now see a pop up requesting that you restart your computer; click Yes and do this now.

After the reboot has completed you should have a much nicer looking desktop now at your computers native resolution.

The first task we need to get out of the way now is Windows Updates; for me this is the most annoying part of this entire process- it will take a long time so be prepared for lots of waiting and watching progress bars move very slowly.

Click on the Windows button, then All Programs > Windows Update.

Once Windows Update has opened click on the “Check for updates” button.

Windows will now search for updates; there will be a lot of updates (usually over 100). If you have an older version of Windows there may also be a service pack to download too. If there is a service pack available this will usually add a considerable amount of time to this process.

Click on the Install updates button, this will start downloading all of the necessary updates. If you get a pop up asking you to accept anything make sure you say Yes during this process. This could take anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 hour +, I would suggest now is the time to go and do something else but remain close to your computer so you can check on its progress.

Once the download and installation has completed you will be prompted to restart your computer, do this now.

Upon restarting you will be greeted with the “Browser Choice” screen, it will also have placed a shortcut on your desktop. Use this screen to install your preferred browser if you do not wish to use Internet Explorer. After installing your favourite browser move the shortcut on the desktop to the recycle bin.

Run Windows Update again, it should find more updates. Install these updates the same way as we did previously. Repeat this process until there are no more updates left to do, then restart your computer.

Now that we have finally finished installing updates we need to change the way Windows checks for them. Open up Windows Update in the same way as before, click on “Change settings” on the right side of the window. In this new window click the dropdown box under “Important Updates” and choose “Download updates but let me choose whether to install them”. Un-tick the box entitled “Give me recommended updates…..”. Click on OK.

Windows is now set up to automatically download any important updates but not install them. If they are automatically installed it can cause your computer to restart when you are working on something. When new updates are downloaded an icon will appear in the system tray (bottom right) to inform you that updates are ready to be installed.

One more set of updates we need to tackle are the Apple Software Updates, this will update iTunes, Safari and QuickTime if they are installed as well as the Bootcamp software. To run this click on the windows button and start typing “Apple Software…..” and you should see the program listed at the top. Click on this and run the updater, repeat this process until there are no more updates available for your computer.

Now that Windows is installed and configured you are ready to start using it normally and install any software that you require. I have some programs and peripherals that I like to use in Windows 7, if you want to read more about these then please take a look HERE.

Finally, you may have noticed that when you restart your computer it automatically now boots in to Windows. If you need to access your OSX partition restart your computer; as soon as the computer starts and makes the chime noise, hold down the ALT key until you see both OSX and Windows drives appear. Click on the one you would like to use and it will load. There are programs that allow you to add a permanent selection screen here so that you don’t have to hold down the ALT key, if you would like more info about these please click on THIS link.

To set your default OS back to Mac OSX start OSX as I have explained above. Click on the Apple logo in the top left of the screen and select System Preferences. In this window select the Startup Disk option, another window will open, in this new window click on Mac OSX then click on the pad lock icon to prevent further changes. With this set you will need to hold down the ALT key when restarting your computer to select your Windows partition.